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Facebook itself seems to be screwed. I just reactivated my FB profile, with the goal of deleting 80% of "friends", because the feed has become so toxic. 1. Hal
by muzani 4y ago
Facebook itself seems to be screwed. I just reactivated my FB profile, with the goal of deleting 80% of "friends", because the feed has become so toxic.
1. Half of my friends have stopped being active since 2020. Some say goodbye, most disappear quietly. But I think antivax and all the anti-gov rhetoric was the last straw for most people.
2. The most active accounts are selling something. Some sell insurance, others sell politics.
3. It's unattractive to people in their early 20s or below.
4. Like many other social media, it has become a game to see who can publicly humiliate other people. It's not as bad as Reddit, but the absence of downvotes mean that people can play really dirty.
5. FB moderation is either AI or untrained minimum wage people basically clicking random buttons. The AI is very predictable and documented, so actual trolls know how to get around it or trick people into self banning (e.g. "white trash")
6. Everyone feels that FB is failing, so they stopped investing in it. Less photos, videos, content, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I think FB is effectively a sinking ship, a Yahoo. Perhaps the Meta rebranding was them distancing from FB. Instagram is still hot, though.
- ozzythecat 4y ago> Facebook itself seems to be screwed. I felt the same way and saw all the toxicity back in 2015. I deleted my FB account back then. Every year since then, people have been predicting Facebooks demise. Maybe this time, under current market conditions facing the company, and arguably worst public discourse - maybe now this time is different. I don’t know. I don’t underestimate FB finding a new monetization avenue. I think FB will evolve, whether that is better or worse for society I don’t know.
- muzani 4y agoI think the "metaverse" might actually be on the mark. It was just that peak metaverse was Farmville. Nobody wants 4D Farmville though. They're not looking for immersion. They're looking for a minimum effort way to socialize. FB likely peaked around 2012 (coincidentally around IPO). After that, it was cashing in on the goodwill it had built. People say it was in decline since the Meta announcement, but I think it was long gone by then. Stock price is a lagging indicator. Meta was a catalyst.
- Gibbon1 4y agoAfter my divorce 25 years ago I was really raw emotionally and stopped watching TV, listening to the radio, and reading the newspaper. What was interesting is after a decade of that going back to any of those was way way too much negative stim. Six months ago replaced my home computer and decided to just not use it with FB. And I got a new smartphone which I now only use for texting. I find that opening FB at work Monday morning gives me the exact same feeling that TV, radio, and newspapers do.
- drstewart 4y ago>I just reactivated my FB profile... because the feed has become so toxic. Umm... you reactivated your profile because something you don't see or use is toxic? What?
- CRConrad 4y ago"I just reactivated my FB profile [which I had deactivated] because the feed has become so toxic", at a guess; like, giving it another chance. Note how the next sentence was something about going to unfriend most of their FB "friends", which would probably be useful if you're deciding to go back to it because it's the only place online where your mother hangs out, or something.
- muzani 4y agoI think it has potential to be useful if cleaned up, but it needs some drastic measures at this point.